Last fall, Apple had a lot of products to introduce: a new iPhone, two new iPads, three new iPods, and a few new Macs. Apple ended up dividing those new devices into two events: an iPhone + iPod event and an iPad + Mac event.

Without much occurring during the first half of this year, and even with the new iPhones launching this month, Apple still has a significant amount of products to still announce this year. Let’s take a look at what’s coming:

iPad Air 2

At Daring Fireball, John Gruber seems to believe that Apple will hold a single October event that focuses on both iPad and Mac announcements. However, I believe that Apple has too much in the pipeline to only hold a single launch event. Why would Apple want to mix the attention with one of its most important product lines (the iPad) with new Apple TV announcements, new Macs, new Mac software, and more all at one time?

Apple will most definitely send out the new iPads, new Macs, new OS X, new Apple TV to reviewers, and that would be a huge undertaking for Apple to expect reviews of all of those products to get accomplished at one time. Holding two events – at least a few weeks apart – would also be much more efficient for Apple from both supply chain and marketing perspectives. In addition, launching so many products simultaneously could overwhelm customers (and their wallets).

I think it makes far more sense for Apple to hold an event next month to discuss the new iPads, new iOS applications, and perhaps the rumored Apple TV. Then, when those products are out of the gate, Apple could hold another event to launch OS X Mavericks, the new Mac Pro, new iWork for Mac, new MacBook Pros, new Mac minis, and perhaps some bonus Mac-related hardware (a new Apple Display would sure be nice for the new ultra-powerful Mac Pros).

I agree with Mark Thomson. The current Thunderbolt displays aren’t even Retina. Now, with Thunderbolt 2 being able to transfer 20 gbps, I have a feeling that Apple will announce a new screen technology. Personally, I think it’ll be some sort of ‘Ultra HD/4K’ display competitor, as professionals are already using 4K monitors. Something along the lines of double Retina display, with greater contrast (bright whites, and perfectly dark blacks), better colour reproduction, faster frame changing, possibly 4 colours (RGB + Y) and of course – Ultra Thin. The new display could also be LED as Apple hasn’t ventured into displays with this technology as of yet. I do think it will be the next gen of the Thunderbolt Display – but there will be a lot more to it than Thunderbolt 2.0.

Thanks. I think given the new shape of the iMac from last year, there’s a visual style to up date to. To be really transformative, if Apple took the same approach as the TV manufacturers and threw in curved displays. A 27″ Ultra HD display with a slight curve would be purely for Pros and thus concerns on volumes wouldn’t really be an issue.

Some where down the line, when yields increase, I’d expect to see the Touch ID sensor wind up in the glass frame of an Apple device like a display, iMac and MBPr

It wouldn’t be Unlike apple to just bump the MBPr spec quietly. They have just done it with the iMac. It may be that they do one every Tuesday on the run up to an event. MPBr in the next week or two, Mac Mini before or after that.

Then have an event about Oct 15th to announce Mac Pro and Mavericks ship date and that all devices bought between a window get mavericks. That can be reeled off my Phil in under 10 mins. Then new iWork and iLife versions demo – 30 mins.

That leaves up to 40 mins to cover iOS 7.1 on new iPads, iWork and iLife on iOS and an update to the Apple tv could even be an under the radar launch.

I see the sense for a Mac Event, but lets be fair, that’s not what makes the most money for Apple any more.

Agreed. Apple only needs to highlight Mac hardware if it’s been redesigned- spec bumps don’t necessary merit any stage time. If the iMac refresh is any indication, Apple may continue to dribble out updates to Mac hardware over the next few weeks. MacMini very likely, and unless there’s something dramatically different, MacBookPros as well. Thunderbolt2 looks like it will be exclusive to the MacPro for the time being.

That leaves the iPads, Mavericks (assuming it isn’t launched before then), MacPro (which is likely going to be just an update on availability- this is the wrong crowd for demoing this machine), software (not counting FinalCutProX- it won’t get stage time, again, wrong crowd) , and anything AppleTV related.

I don’t know, I think it’ll get stage time. The last spec bump (or silent refresh) was in February. I see Apple calling the Mac event, a ‘Professional’ event – with the announcement/release of the Mac Pro, MacBook Pro w/ Retina, iWork, Final Cut Pro and Mavericks (with Multiple monitor support – a feature aimed directly at professional users). Apple upgraded their PCIe speed by 50%, something important to professionals, so while I agree that they’ll silently refresh the iMacs and Mac Minis – they’ll use the MBP/MP to highlight this new technology. After all, at the WWDC this year, they did give a ‘shout out’ to the refreshed MacBook Pro from February.

I’m curious as to why you say “likely no TouchID” on the iPad mini? Is this just speculation or is it based on anything? The iPad mini is currently the most popular of the two sizes, and the one that is best suited to actual work as opposed to watching movies etc.

Why would they introduce TouchID and then not put it on the mini, yet put it on every other device out there? It’s not like the parts are expensive.

Yeah, but that’s just speculation and it doesn’t make much sense given the huge number of iPhones they are pumping out and the fact that they’ve been planning to introduce the fingerprint thing for about two years already. They would have planned for that surely.

That’s an iOS side thing, and I think if they were going to do multi-user accounts, it wold have been announced at WWDC in June. So if thats going to come, it won’t be any earlier than iOS8 preview NEXT June.

– no need for separate events for software
– no need for event at all for updated MacBook Pros (they’ve done this before)
– no need for event for new OS X (also done before)
– new Apple TV hardware and new “secret” Mac hardware is speculation and may not even be real.

All that leaves is a standard iPad announcement, where they throw in news about a new iWork (and maybe OS X), and surprise reveal the Mac Pro (or possibly the “secret”), at the end.

Most likely the hardware spec bumps will not be announced, since those are turning to more of a silent update. Mac pro specs and availability will probably not need an event, just a web page. Apple tv hardware is pretty speculative at this point (I know, all of it is, but this one has the biggest grain of salt). Which pretty much leaves an ipad event that also shows off the new iwork suite across all platforms. Including icloud. They could throw in the apple tv if it’s just a refresh, but who knows on that one, I just wouldn’t be that surprised about that one.

The Mac Pro will most definitely get a lot of screen time. Based off the fact of how much these devices cost alone! Not to mention how long it’s been since Apple updated it. The Creative professional is Apple’s foundation, they’ve been with them from the beginning. Just look at the WWDC from 2012! Apple spent a lot of time announcing the rMBP, and the crowd erupted! There is a real need to please the professional crowd, and a web page just can’t do that. What’s so bad about two events?

We know the new MacPro will have Thunderbolt 2. Is that ready yet? As for the rMBPs, we already have Haswell, 802.11ac, and PCIe…so what’s the hold up for these machines? My guess is, the rMBPs will have Thunderbolt 2 as well, and Apple’s just waiting for it to be ready.

I also say we’ll get new Thunderbolt Displays, which will have Thunderbolt 2 and have their USB ports updated to USB 3 (at least that’s what I’m hoping for!)

As for when…well, how exciting will the new iPad’s be? We already know most, if not all, that’s going in to them, thanks to the iPhone event. OK, so they get a new form factor. I think Apple’s waiting for the iPad event to release the new MacPro/rMBP because most of the thunder is gone from the iPad event due to the iPhone event having already taken place.

iWatch too, even if like the earlier (circular) Mac Pro announcement, it may not be available for a while. This way, they stop people buying potentially inferior alternatives. I take rumours with a pinch of salt, unless logical/supported by tangible evidence (such as recent iPhones), but I did hear that they WILL announce the iWatch this year, but I’m not basing that on anything other than hearsay. Note that Samsung have announced they will launch a curved device this October, so the tech is obviously ready and they may have supplied Apple so they (Apple) can show something working this year, even if not avail until 2014.

Apple is, traditionnally, very secret about their new products. The Mac Pro is the exception because, I think, the pros were to loud to ignore. They had to calm them and let them know they’re still in Apple’s plans. The iWatch will very likely have its own event because, well, its kinda big deal!

Folks, in the marketing world you have to divide, split up, everything into crunchable bits to let people accept what you want and to put prices higher than what it is really worth … that’s what you call “the free market” … so why should Apple not apply what business is really doing, making a profit … as a customer of Apple products, I’m really convinced of the good products the deliver and I see forward to what will come in the future!

I’m getting so tired of Apple stacking their product launches just before the Christmas buying season. They used to stagger these announcements throughout the year and it was nice not to have to wait so long in between the announcements. It felt like they were consistently surprising us with new breakthroughs. I get that this sets them up to coast through the holidays without the added pressure of a CES-like event on January 2, but even Jobs knew it wasn’t good to stay out of the media/public’s mind for too long. One of Apple’s greatest talents was the art of anticipation. Even though they are still delivering above and beyond my expectations, I just don’t have that excitement I once had waiting for the next iLife or Mac Mini or even the iPod Hi-Fi. You can tell that Cook, just isn’t that comfortable with marketing as Jobs was.

I really think there will be two events. One, the Mac event – which I think they’ll brand as a ‘Professional’ event, announcing the Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, the Secret Mac tech (which I think will be an all new display technology in the Thunderbolt display), iWork, Final Cut Pro & Mavericks. Second, the ‘iOS’ event – more than iPads people! – announcing the iPad 5, the iPad Mini with Retina, (I don’t think Apple will make a new mini without Retina), Apple TV & Redesigned first party apps, including iWork for iOS. I think the Professional event will be mid October – right after their earnings call – then 2 to 3 weeks later (in early November) the iPad event. I think Apple will want time to work out iOS7 bugs, redesign all of their apps (that aren’t yet) and this will also give them more time to produce the quantity of iPads they’ll need for launch – especially if they are going to put Touch ID in them.

I’d love there to be, but I just don’t see it. The last time Apple had an exclusively Mac focused event was the Back to the Mac event in October of 2010- and that was primarily to introduce Lion, as well as consumer Mac software.

With the flexibility that Apple has to do live events whenever they like via the Mac/iOS ecosystem, I think Apple SHOULD be doing these kinds of highly focused presentations. But they aren’t now, and I’m more inclined to believe that products like the MacPro and the new Final Cut will just get deep informational pages like Logic Pro X did when it launched in the Summer.

It would be one awesome Apple event if they did announce everything, but they would probably split it up over two events if they are really going to announce all that, but I would still love to to see this in one sitting.

That list is seriously padded. List the iPads as one item, iWork as another and you’ve already reduced it significantly. That’s before we get to entries about ‘super secret vapour ware’ and the like.

A lot of the suggested updates are possible to be done silently. We already saw them do a silent update of the iMac this week if you’re looking for any sort of precedence. Any of those ‘Haswell’ updates are good candidates for such a release without announcement unless there are other notable changes to be made. They also aren’t overly likely to announce UI updates to existing apps given they’ve been refreshing them already without making a deal of it.

Realistically, I think you are looking at a list that can be summed up as
– iPads
– Macbook Pro
– Mac Pro

iPads would consume the vast majority of any keynote. Things such as Mavericks and iWork could consist of a single slide while talking about the Macbook/Mac Pro unless there is some sort of massive announcement to be made. mavericks and the Mac Pro in particular have had a deal of stage time allocated to them, so I’m unsure if they need to go over it again in great depth.

Anyway, I think they have a decent amount of things to release, but I don’t think it all adds up to them needing to spend a long time on stage to get the message out.

if i was apple i’d get those announcements made already. holiday shopping is about to start and they already missed graduation/beginning of school year.

i know we are an apple family but if the new macbook pro/ipads don’t come out soon we will look at alternatives…. in fact we are… we need to upgrade but won’t before an new version…which gives us time to look around at other lower priced options (and there are a LOT out there)